Part 15 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF ALEXANDER LA MILLIERE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER XI.
THE HUGUENOTS.
Members of the Reformed Church in France had to submit to persecutions similar to those endured by their co-religionists in other European countries.
It is as well to remember that living as we do in a Protestant country, our historians have been strongly bia.s.sed in their favour, and that whilst the horrors of St. Bartholomew's Day are always depicted in the most lurid manner, little or nothing is said about the bloodshed and cruelties inflicted by the Calvinists on the Catholics in those parts of the country where they happened to be numerous and powerful. The two factions hated one another for the love of G.o.d; it was a cruel period, and, as Baron Rothschild remarks in his ”Characteristics from French History,” ”There was nothing to choose between Protestants and Catholics in their savage hatred of each other. The Protestants butchered the Catholics whenever they had an opportunity, and all that happened at St.
Bartholomew was that the Catholics made a good score.” And this view naturally presents itself to any unprejudiced reader of the history of the period.
After frightful ma.s.sacres and civil wars, the accession of Henry IV.
(himself a Calvinist) to the throne of France in 1589, gave promise of a more tolerant spirit, and in April, 1598, he promulgated the famous Edict of Nantes giving the Protestants a certain amount of religious freedom. This wise measure was confirmed by his successors Louis XIII.
in 1610, and Louis XIV. in 1652. But later on, Louis XIV., under the influence of Madame de Montespan and the Romish Church, saw fit to revoke the Edict of Nantes in October, 1658, an act which was in its consequences one of the most disastrous for the commerce and prosperity of France.
It was the aim of Louis, and his ministers, to compel the members of the Reformed Church to abjure their heresies, and return to the Catholic Church, and in some remote country districts, or places where the Huguenots were few and isolated, the plan succeeded. But in the main it failed, as all forced religious conversions ever have failed, a lesson which kings and priests have always before them, and yet never seem to learn.
The forced exile of the Huguenot Ministers, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was the signal for flight to thousands of French Protestants of both s.e.xes, and of all cla.s.ses and ages, and in spite of the penalties proclaimed against emigration, and the punishments inflicted upon those who were arrested in the attempt to leave their country, an enormous number of persons did effect their escape to the various Protestant States in Europe, and even to the then newly-settled American colonies, but princ.i.p.ally to our sh.o.r.es.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOOK-PLATE OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT HOSPITAL.]
They brought with them the art of manufacturing silk, and founded a prosperous colony in Spitalfields, where their descendants yet remain.
Gla.s.s making, jewellery, and other trades in which taste and skill are required, were also understood by them; they rapidly became naturalized, and useful citizens, and the names and histories of many of our wealthy families attest their Huguenot descent.
The term _Huguenot_ seems first to have been applied to the Calvinists about 1560, on the occasion of the Alboise conspiracy; some say the word was derived from the German _Eidgenossen_, signifying a sworn confederacy, whilst others say it was founded on the name of Hugues, a Genevese Calvinist.
That the sobriquet _Huguenot_ was well known and understood as early as 1622, is shown by the existence of a rare tract ent.i.tled ”La Trompette de salut aux Huguenots de ce temps, 1622,” written in verse in the following vein:
Huguenots, l'Eglise Romaine Vous purgera tous du venin De la doctrine de Calvin Et vous otera de peine.
In glancing over a collection of British book-plates we shall be struck with the French appearance of many names, such as the following: Arabin, Barre, Boileau, Dampier, Ferrier, Martineau, Maturin, Labouchere, Delarue, Harcourt, Vignoles, Curtois, Poignand, Lempriere, Drinquebier, Drucquer, Duhamel, Lemercier, La Malliere, Leschallas, Monteuuis, Laprimaudaye.
David Garrick, we know, was of Huguenot descent, and carried a French motto on his book-plate.
The name of Le Keux occurs as an interesting one in this connection, as representatives of the family still exist, whilst its pedigree has been traced back to one John Le Keux, who married Antoinette Le Quien in the French church at Canterbury as far back as 25 December, 1645.
In this pedigree it is curious to note how frequently members of the Le Keux family allied themselves in marriage with the descendants of other French refugees: thus we meet with the names Didier, Mariscaux, Mariette, De Ribeaucour, Paillet, and Debonnaire. In 1783 was born John Le Keux, and in 1787 Henry Le Keux; both became eminent engravers: John died in 1846, and was buried in Bunhill Fields Cemetery. He was the father of the late John Henry Le Keux, who was born in 1812, and died quite recently (February 4th, 1896), in Durham. His fame as an engraver exceeded that of either his father or his uncle, and although he did not produce many book-plates, those he did were indeed works of art.
As will be seen from the pedigree published in the _Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica_ the Le Keux family had for generations resided in, or near Spitalfields, but in 1863 Mr. J. H. Le Keux married a Durham lady, and henceforward resided in that city till his death.
In the north-east of London there exists an inst.i.tution which, in a quiet and unostentatious manner, does good work amongst a very deserving cla.s.s of the community. This inst.i.tution, known as the French Protestant Hospital, is in reality a home for a certain number of elderly people, all of whom are descendants of French Protestants who have at various times sought refuge in England. In 1708 Monsieur de Gastigny, a French Protestant refugee in the service of the Prince of Orange, bequeathed 1,000 for the purpose of founding a hospital. Many other refugees also contributed, so that within a few years the scheme for a Huguenot Asylum took definite shape, and in 1718 the founders commenced the building, and obtained a charter of incorporation under the t.i.tle of ”The Hospital for poor French Protestants and their Descendants residing in Great Britain.”
Amongst the inmates the asylum was more lovingly known as ”La Providence,” a t.i.tle it still deserves, owing to the beauty of the building and its grounds, and the kind and generous treatment of its inmates by the Governor and the Court of Directors.